Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Family Dentistry....Am I Really Middle Aged?

What does family dentistry mean? In our office, it means that we provide comprehensive dental care to your entire family. It means that our family takes care of your family. It means that we care about our staff like they are members of our family. Since family dentistry is so important to our mission statement, we have alot to say about it. Today, our topic is the oral health of our patients in their forties.

When we hit our forties, many things start to fall apart. I'm there. I feel your pain. From a dental perspective, old fillings will start to break down and require either replacement or crown placement. Your life begins to be more stressful. I'm blaming my stress on my teenagers! I hear complaints every day of jaw pain related to teeth clenching and grinding. A simple solution to this is wearing a night guard to prevent night time grinding. Debbie and I both wear them and have seen marked improvement. Besides the jaw pain of grinding, you will also see a gradual wearing of your teeth. So, early intervention is very important.

This is the age group that we begin to see in increase in endodontic problems(root canals). It is really important to take care of these as they become a problem. Left untreated, they will get worse. I promise. While a root canal and crown is expensive, it is still less expensive than what will happen next if left untreated.

Men and women in their forties have the financial stresses of raising a family, paying for the children's activities, clothes, etc. It just seems like everyday expenses take priority over their dental health. We hear all the time how families are paying for expensive sports, schools, etc but haven't budgeted money to care for their teeth. This is unfortunate. We try to offer some payment options for the more expensive procedures.

Dr Brian Johnson
1240 Upper Hembree Road
Suite C
Roswell, GA 30076
http://www.brianjohnsondmd.com/
770.993.9809

No comments:

Post a Comment